Plerospheres and their role in reduction of emitted fine fly ash particles

Particles, less than PM10 in size, emitted from the stack of pulverized coal-fired power plants are of environmental concern since they can easily enter the human respiratory track. These fine particles are examined by Scanning Electron Microscope/Electron Dispersive Spectrometry （SEM/EDX）. Plerospheres are found in fly ash and are particles containing smaller particles formed during combustion of coal. The large plerospheres 〉50 μm mostly are present in ESP fly ash, indicating that they are effectively capturing fine particles and reducing their stack emission.     

The seismic hazard assessment of the Dead Sea rift, Jordan

The Dead Sea fault system and its branching faults represent one of the most tectonically active regions in the Middle East. The aim of this study is to highlight the degree of hazards related to the earthquake activities associated with the Dead Sea rift, in terms of speculating the possible future earthquakes. The present investigation mainly is based on available data and vertical crustal modeling of Jordan and the Dead Sea model for the Dead Sea basin with particular emphasis of the recent earthquake activities, which occurred on December 31st, 2003 (Mc = 3.7), February 11th, 2004 (strongest Mc = 4.9 R), and March 15th, 2004 (Mc = 4). The present research examines the location of the strong events and correlates them with the various tectonic elements in the area. The source mechanism of the main shock and the aftershock events is also examined. The analyses were based on the available short period seismogram data, which was recorded at the Natural Resources Authority of Jordan, Seismological Observatory. The seismic energy appears to have migrated from the south to the north during the period from December 31st up to March 12th, where the released seismic energy showed a migration character to the southern block of the eastern side of the Dead Sea, which led the seismic event to occur on March 15th.     

Optimization of nonconventional wells under uncertainty using statistical proxies

The determination of the optimal type and placement of a nonconventional well in a heterogeneous reservoir represents a challenging optimization problem. This determination is significantly more complicated if uncertainty in the reservoir geology is included in the optimization. In this study, a genetic algorithm is applied to optimize the deployment of nonconventional wells. Geological uncertainty is accounted for by optimizing over multiple reservoir models (realizations) subject to a prescribed risk attitude. To reduce the excessive computational requirements of the base method, a new statistical proxy (which provides fast estimates of the objective function) based on cluster analysis is introduced into the optimization process. This proxy provides an estimate of the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the scenario performance, which enables the quantification of proxy uncertainty. Knowledge of the proxy-based performance estimate in conjunction with the proxy CDF enables the systematic selection of the most appropriate scenarios for full simulation. Application of the overall method for the optimization of monobore and dual-lateral well placement demonstrates the performance of the hybrid optimization procedure. Specifically, it is shown that by simulating only 10% or 20% of the scenarios (as determined by application of the proxy), optimization results very close to those achieved by simulating all cases are obtained.     

Effect of particles on the photodegradation of PAHs in natural waters-A case study for the Yellow River

Photodegradation of chrysene, benzo （a） pyrene and benzo （g, h, i） perylene in natural water of the Yellow River was studied using simulation sunlight. The effects of particulates on the photodegradation were explored. Several results arose from this study. （1） The photodegradation of PAHs can be fitted with first-order kinetics when no particulate exists in water system, and the first-order constant increases with decreasing of initial concentration of PAHs. The photodegradation rates of the three PAHs are related to their molecule absorption spectrum. （2） The existence of loess exerts two kinds of effects on the photodegradation of PAHs, including the inner filter effects and the photosensitizing effects of humic substance in loess. These two contrary effects lead to the difference of net effects among different contents of loess. When the loess contents are 0.1 and 5.0 g/L, the existence of loess stimulates the photodegradation of chrysene, benzo （a） pyrene. When the loess content is 5.0 g/L, the existence of loess stimulates the photodegradation of benzo （g, h, i） perylene. In addition, the photodegradation of PAHs can be fitted with the second-order kinetics when there is loess in the water system. （3） The soluble humic substances in loess can accelerate the photodegradation of PAHs while the in soluble part cannot. （4） Since the soluble humic substances in the suspended solids of the river have been dissolved in water,     

大气CO2浓度升高对土壤中不同粒级碳的影响

不同粒级土壤中的碳有着不同的周转规律，在高CO2浓度条件下，它们含量的变化将在一定程度上反映土壤碳是累积还是减少，对明确土壤碳的变化趋势有重要意义．采用田间培养试验初步模拟研究在高CO2浓度条件下土壤不同粒级碳的分布．结果表明，加入秸秆培养1年，由于CO2浓度升高的原因导致在低氮（LN）、常规氮（NN）和高氮（HN）水平下土壤中碳分别增加0．01、1．10、1．22g／kg，表现为粒级〈53μm土壤颗粒中碳分别增加1．53、2．19、2．70g／kg．粒级〈53μmm土壤颗粒碳量的增加，主要是由于其重量分配百分数显著增加36．2％，碳浓度增加5．4％；粒级〉250μm和250～53μm土壤颗粒部分虽然其碳浓度分别增加20．8％和17．3％（P〈0．05），怛由于重量分配百分数分别显著降低22．8％和36．1％，结果碳量降低．试验表明高CO2浓度导致不同粒级土壤的分配及碳浓度的变化；高氮施肥水平下有增加土壤碳量特别是小粒级土壤碳量的趋势．     

Optimization of SAGD Well Elevation

The application of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) to recover heavy oil sands is becoming increasingly important in the northern Alberta McMurray Formation because of the vast resources/reserves accessible with this mechanism. Selecting the stratigraphic elevations of SAGD well pairs is a vital decision for reservoir evaluation and planning. The inherent uncertainty in the distribution of geological variables significantly influences this decision. Geostatistical simulation is used to capture geological uncertainty, which is used can be transformed into a distribution of the best possible well pair elevations. A simple exhaustive calculation scheme is used to determine the optimum stratigraphic location of a SAGD well pair where the recovery R is maximized. There are three basic steps to the methodology: (1) model the uncertainty in the top continuous bitumen (TCB) and bottom continuous bitumen (BCB) surfaces, (2) calculate the recovery at all possible elevation increments within the TCB and BCB interval, and (3) identify the elevation that maximizes R. This is repeated for multiple TCB/BCB pairs of surfaces to assess uncertainty. The methodology is described and implemented on a subset of data from the Athabasca Oilsands in Fort McMurray, Alberta.     

数据备份服务器备份性能分析

针对数据备份服务器备份性能优化问题，分别对实时数据存储与历史数据备份之间的关系、数据备份服务器所备份的数据类型非唯一性、客户数量对备份服务器备份效率的影响三方面进行初步的测试与分析，提出了通过优化数据块的选取、优化数据采集方式、优化备份策略提高备份服务器备份效率的基本方法。     

应用PIV系统研究横流中近壁水平圆柱绕流旋涡特性

应用粒子图像测速(PIV)系统对横流中近壁水平圆柱绕流进行了试验研究。介绍了试验原理及装置,讨论了试验参数的选取和粒子的跟随性问题。分析了上游来流的流动特性,显示了亚临界雷诺数下间隙比为0.5时圆柱后尾流区旋涡产生、发展和消亡的动态过程,比较了时均流场和瞬时流场旋涡结构。对圆柱尾迹的旋涡脱落特性进行了分析,得出在试验条件下斯特劳哈尔数保持为常数0.2的结论。     

Particle size dependent response of aerosol counters

During an international workshop at the Institute for Experimental Physics of the University of Vienna, Austria, which was coordinated within the Committee on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols (IAMAS-IUGG), 10 instruments for aerosol number concentration measurement were studied, covering a wide range of methods based on various different measuring principles. In order to investigate the detection limits of the instruments considered with respect to particle size, simultaneous number concentration measurements were performed for monodispersed aerosols with particle sizes ranging from 1.5 to 50 nm diameter and various compositions.The instruments considered show quite different response characteristics, apparently related to the different vapors used in the various counters to enlarge the particles to an optically detectable size. A strong dependence of the 50% cutoff diameter on the particle composition in correlation with the type of vapor used in the specific instrument was found. An enhanced detection efficiency for ultrafine hygroscopic sodium chloride aerosols was observed with water operated systems, an analogous trend was found for n-butanol operated systems with nonhygroscopic silver and tungsten oxide particles.     

Combination of Dependent Realizations Within the Gradual Deformation Method

Gradual deformation is a parameterization method that reduces considerably the unknown parameter space of stochastic models. This method can be used in an iterative optimization procedure for constraining stochastic simulations to data that are complex, nonanalytical functions of the simulated variables. This method is based on the fact that linear combinations of multi-Gaussian random functions remain multi-Gaussian random functions. During the past few years, we developed the gradual deformation method by combining independent realizations. This paper investigates another alternative: the combination of dependent realizations. One of our motivations for combining dependent realizations was to improve the numerical stability of the gradual deformation method. Because of limitations both in the size of simulation grids and in the precision of simulation algorithms, numerical realizations of a stochastic model are never perfectly independent. It was shown that the accumulation of very small dependence between realizations might result in significant structural drift from the initial stochastic model. From the combination of random functions whose covariance and cross-covariance are proportional to each other, we derived a new formulation of the gradual deformation method that can explicitly take into account the numerical dependence between realizations. This new formulation allows us to reduce the structural deterioration during the iterative optimization. The problem of combining dependent realizations also arises when deforming conditional realizations of a stochastic model. As opposed to the combination of independent realizations, combining conditional realizations avoids the additional conditioning step during the optimization process. However, this procedure is limited to global deformations with fixed structural parameters.